[QuadList] Hitachi Quad machine-SV-7400B--Pictures, siblings, Digital audio deck

Fri Sep 18 15:15:46 CDT 2015

Greetings from now not so smoky Northern California…

Here’s a picture of a Hitachi SV-7400 B in the NHK museum:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/494270127827283357/

The sign seems to indicate it’s from 1976.  

Perhaps NHK still has the manuals somewhere?  And more info on Japanese Quads?

The SV-7400 B appears to be more like the RCA TP-10 in size.

A link to an English PDF with picture describing more about the SV-7800B in the NHK museum:
http://sts.kahaku.go.jp/english/material/2013pdf/no114.pdf

This document says the unit was (Metric in Millimeters, it appears) 
W760×D550×H630/150kg/Aprox.1kW

Here's a reference to the SV-7800B in a Japanese language publication with image… (scroll till you see the image)
http://www.hitachihyoron.com/jp/pdf/1975/01/1975_01_05.pdf

If anyone’s good at translating Japanese… it would be nice to have the sign on the VTR and the document in English.

It appears that the Hitachi SV-7800B Quad is rather different from the Hitachi unit that David pulled up in my e-mail from 2013.

That unit I mentioned then appears to be a unit similar in size and purpose to the Ampex VR-3000 suitcase Quad.

From the SMPTE Journal, May 1976 Page 312 (the use of which, here, we hope qualifies as “fair use…” and doesn’t get anyone upset)

Videotape Recording

A 2-in (5-cm) 4-head portable VTR for broadcasting was introduced by Hitachi Electronics Co., Ltd. (Fig. J-19). Use of digital circuits, integrated circuits and a newly designed miniature motor, along with increased use of metal composite material contributed to minimizing its size and weight. Functionally, it is designed for easy use with a master erase head, audio erase head and a tape timer incorporated into the unit. Its body is 49 cm (19.3 in) wide, 19cm(7.5 in) high and 34cm(13.4 in) deep. The attached battery power unit provides about 30 min of continuous recording. In addition to an ordinary ac power source, automobile, helicopter and marine batteries can also be used. An image reproduction reported to be comparable in quality to that obtained with a stationary unit is assured when the recorder is combined with a playback adapter and digital time-base corrector developed at the same time. The tape speeds available are 38 cm/s (1 5 in/s) and 19cm/s (7.5 in/s), automatically switched by changing the heads. Another important feature is that its tape pattern is similar to that of 4-head broadcasting VTR, so recorded tapes or playback VTRs are interchangeable among them. 

The SMPTE Journal did not report a model number for this unit (or the Asaca 1” Quad mentioned in my 2013 e-mail, or I’d have mentioned them.  

If anyone can put a model number to this suitcase Hitachi unit, it would be appreciated.

Knowing that Hitachi and Shibaden have a linked history, the development of Hitachi and Shibaden-branded Quad recorders could mean some commonality between the separately branded products.

http://www.hitachi-kokusai.co.jp/global/corporate/history.html reports where the companies become linked.  Shiba history reports:

1959
Shiba Electric completed its broadcast-purpose VCR, (did they really mean VTR) which was the first produced in Japan. 

1963
Shiba Electric was listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo and Osaka Stock Exchanges. Showadenshi Sangyo Corporation renamed itself Hitachi Denshi. Shiba Electric set up Shibaden America.

1964
Shiba Electric supplied its VTRs exclusively to the Tokyo Olympics. Shiba Electric's cameras and relays were also successfully operated.

2000
The trio of companies:  Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd., Hitachi Denshi, Ltd., and Yagi Antenna Co., Ltd. merged to form "Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc"

There are more corporate changes listed on the web-page for those interested in corporate stuff.

Shibaden made the SV-7000 Quad VTR, about the size of an Ampex AVR-2 without over bridge.

Renowned Quad refurbisher and product development wizard Merlin Engineering Works used the SV-7000 as the basis of a Quad dub system for Vidtronics in Los Angeles, circa 1975.  
Merlin called their version the MW-68, as shown here:
http://www.labguysworld.com/Merlin_ME68.htm

Shiba Quads used as an early Digital Audio Recorder:

Working with these “rollable” quads had me thinking that I wrote something about a similar-sized VTR being used as an early digital audio recorder using a Quad VTR as the base.

Googling just now pulls up an Audio Engineering Society item:
http://www.aes.org/aeshc/pdf/fine_dawn-of-digital.pdf

In 1972,Denon unveiled the DN-023R, an 8- channel system featuring 13-bit resolution and a sampling rate of 47.25kHz. The system used a Hitachi (then called Shiba Electronics) 4-head open-reel broadcast VTR as its storage format. Anazawa noted: "We used the low-band mode of the VTR, for black and white (video).The reasons were stronger (performance)than color mode for tape drop- out and less cost." Anazawa said, with the DN-023R,"we could edit music recordings and cut (LP) discs using advanced (preview) head" to control lathe-automation

There’s another reason why Hitachi/Shiba decks were used.  According to part 1 of the Denon blog story linked to below: “At the time of Denon, namely Nippon Columbia is one company of the Hitachi Group, digitization was a project that worked in the entire Hitachi Group."

Here’s the story on the Denon website as told by the people who made it possible:
http://pr.denon.com/jp/Denon/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=260#.Vfxs5YvZFzM

Translation:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpr.denon.com%2Fjp%2FDenon%2FLists%2FPosts%2FPost.aspx%3FID%3D260%23.Vfxs5YvZFzM&edit-text=&act=url

Note the Smith Splicer being used to edit the audio recordings:
(Denon Blog photo)

Pictures of a Denon Columbia badged unit here:
http://www.teddigital.com/DN023RADC.htm

No, that’s not me jn the URL.  Click on this link for Japanese to English translation
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.teddigital.com%2FDN023RADC.htm&edit-text=&act=url

The photos show the transport without a Quad head, but it was present in other photos, such as the two found here
http://m.review33.com/forum_msg.php?db=1&tstart=0&s=&topic=68121111210544&start=210&sort=1&number=99

Here’s more… and it looks like the smaller Hitachi SV-7400 Quad was used for a later, “portable” version:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=3077036936

Translation:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.jp%2Fgp%2Ffeature.html%3Fie%3DUTF8%26docId%3D3077036936&edit-text=&act=url

Probably more than you realized about a particular line of Japanese Quad VTRs.

And… 

If you have more time than I do…   and a Pinterest account… (another potentially large-amperage time suck…) play around with various search word combos including "Video Recorder” in the search.  Some interesting things may pop up.

Here’s a cool mobile sound truck!:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/76631631129613810/

And an ad for a Sony 1” to film system using an Electron Beam Recorder:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/322922235759899713/
from this Flicker link
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36464802@N05/3731176615/

May your reels and heads be smoothly rolling today.

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary
Quad Videotape Group
iPhone: 	(530) 301-2931
ted at QuadVideotapeGroup.com
Skype: 	TedLangdell 

Web:  www.QuadVideotapeGroup.com
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/QuadVideotapeGroup

On Sep 18, 2015, at 9:22 AM, David Crosthwait via QuadList <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> wrote:

> From: David Crosthwait <david at dcvideo.com>
> Subject: Re: [QuadList] Hitachi Quad machine.
> Date: September 18, 2015 at 9:22:02 AM PDT
> To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
> 
> 
> http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2013-June/007366.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> David Crosthwait
> DC Video

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